China pledges transparency over bird flu – James Sturcke

A senior Chinese official today insisted that the country has learned the lessons of the Sars outbreak and promised complete openness in its fight against bird flu.

China was heavily criticised during the 2003 outbreak of Sars, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, for initially covering up the illness. Now Beijing says it is committed to quickly investigating and reporting possible bird flu cases to the public and world health groups.

“From Sars, we see that no … information can be hidden,” China’s disease control director, Qi Xiaoqiu, said while visiting the United States. “We have policies to encourage farmers to report possible outbreaks.”